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Unfortunately my country didn´t qualify as we were just not good enough

That didn't stop us!

But who will win? Who are your favourites?

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Probably Spain but Brazil are always strong contenders and you can never write the Germans off (unfortunately :tongue

One thing I'm sure of, it won't be England - or any nation that calls football "soccer!"

I'm just determined to enjoy some great football, even after England have flown home the day after the quarter finals (I heard a rumour that the plane tickets are already booked :sad010

Mind you, we might get a bit further than I think if Rooney doesn't get :banned: and Peter Crouch gets to do a few of his . But as for winning it . Mind you, if by some miracle we do, I'll be :whoo: :alcoholic: and on

Well, I am not big on soccer, but do enjoy some of the 'big' games. But - my wife is Chilean, so the World Cup is a huge part of our household right now. My oldest monster is in Cape Town right now. She claims it's for the soccer, but I suspect the associated parties are the real attraction...

The Brit in me (born in N.I) roots for England, my Irish in me will curse Tierry for years to come and the fact that I've lived in The Netherlands for years means I will be weeping into my beer for both Holland and England when they both get hosed in the quarter finals.

Half time in the England/USA game. England are f**ked - a midfield that didn't bother showing up and one of the worst goalkeeping howlers in history. On track for a typical England tournament performance

I think Germany will surprise in this tournament. Sami Khedira will fill just fine and might change their approach. I still remain unconvinced on Klose and Podolski, but whoever plays them will have to beat them, they won't beat themselves. You put Rooney or Messi on Germany's team and they would be as good as anyone Argentina looked pretty good today. Nigeria is a good team.

My other pick is The Mighty Orange. I think the Dutch will do well.

In the end the obvious teams will advance in this round and we'll find out in the next round who is for real.

Lamm is my only concern with Germany.

Try living in Texas and following the World Cup. I don't know anyone here who is interested. Sigh..........................

I think it was a very encouraging England performance. Hesky was outstanding and instrumental in many England attacks that breeched the USA defence. Most promisingly, he gelled nicely with Rooney. The midfield were very strong going forward and linked well with the strikers, they also got back quickly and covered well when they needed to defend. Terry and King looked solid and the backs were adventurous, demonstrating plenty of pace when England attacked.

Of course, in the true England tradition they couldn't make it easy, either for themselves on the pitch or for us frustrated fans back home. Sure, Green made a howler, but he attoned for it with very fast reactions to make a save when nobody would have blamed him if it had been a goal. However, the one big minus for the outfield players was their inability to score more than one goal; if they'd capitalized properly on their inventive approach play and scything attacks it would have been a comfortable win and Green's slip would have been little more than a minor embarrasment.

Credit must go to the USA for defending resolutely and taking the attack to England on so many occassions. Contrary to popular belief they are no push over for any team and seem to improve with each successive World Cup. "Soccer" as they call it (and I really wish they wouldn't) is still not a major spectator sport in the States but rather suprisingly it is the most played team sport with the highest number of active participants. The way the game is developing over there it is surely only a matter of time before they join the ranks of the major footballing nations.

Going back to Green's gaff, it's almost mandatory that we have an incident like this or a controversy in every major international tournament. In the past we've had Beckham's petulant sending off, Roony falling foul of his clubmate Ronaldo's tricks, and of course the famous "hand of god" goal. Let's hope tonight's little drama is it for this World Cup - far better to get it out the way in the group stages than have it happen in the semi-final against Brazil, as it did to David Seaman when he was lobbed from forty yards!